Carnival Sunshine Named Best Mid-Sized Ship and Carnival Breeze Recognized as Best Cruise Ship for Families.

Carnival Cruise Line earned top honors as the Best Ocean Cruise Line in the annual USA Today 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards announced today. In addition, Carnival Sunshine was named Best Mid-Sized Ship, and Carnival Breeze was voted Best Cruise Ship for Families. Carnival ships dominated the Best Cruise Ship for Families category with Carnival Breeze, Carnival Horizon and Carnival Vista holding three of the top four spots.

Youngsters on board the Carnival Breeze try out SkyCourse, a ropes’ course at sea in which participants can traverse suspended cables with views 150 feet to the sea below. The course is part of an expansive outdoor recreation area on the ship called SportSquare. Photo by Andy Newman/Carnival Cruise Line

Carnivals Fun Ships are known for their exhilarating water slides and Carnival Sunshine features the lines most extensive water park to date with Speedway Splash, these twin 235-foot-long racing slides. Photo by Andy Newman/Carnival Cruise Line

Nominees were selected by a panel of USA Today and 10Best.com editors and contributors, and then voted on by the public. 10Best.com provides users with original, unbiased and experiential travel content around the U.S. and beyond. Combined with USA Today, America’s number one newspaper, the two news forums garner 6.6 million readers daily.

“We are honored to be recognized by the readers of USA Today and 10Best.com for these coveted awards,” said Christine Duffy, president of Carnival Cruise Line. “Our team works diligently to provide our guests with new levels of fun and excitement, delivered by our amazing onboard crew, and it’s wonderful to see these efforts recognized and rewarded.”

With the recent addition of San Francisco, Carnival operates from 19 North American homeports, and roughly half of the U.S. population is within a five-hour drive to one of the locations. Providing a convenient and cost-effective means for guests to get to and from their cruises, the line carries more than 5.2 million guests annually.

Carnival earned the Best Ocean Cruise Line honor for its innovative and extensive offerings and array of exciting developments over the past year. These include the launch of Carnival Horizon, sailing from PortMiami year-round, which features the first-ever Dr. Seuss water park, Smokehouse Brewhouse with barbeque favorites from Food Network star Guy Fieri and four craft beers brewed on board, as well as the finalization of an extensive $2 billion ship enhancement program that has added a variety of new food, beverage, entertainment and attraction choices across the fleet.

Carnival is the number one cruise line for families, carrying more than 800,000 children a year – the most in cruising. Families sailing with Carnival enjoy such fun as Seuss at Sea, an exclusive partnership with Dr. Seuss Enterprises, along with top-rated children’s programs, all-ages comedy shows and audience favorites like Hasbro, The Game Show and Lip Sync Battle. Taking the title as the Best Cruise Ship for Families, Carnival Breeze, sailing from Port Canaveral, Fla., features a 320-foot-long waterslide at its sprawling WaterWorks aqua park, an interactive Thrill Theater experience, and a suspended ropes course with views to the sea 150 feet below.

Carnival Sunshine, homeported in Port Canaveral, Fla., was named “Best Mid-Sized Ship” in the Awards for its wide-ranging offerings, including a Speedway Splash water slide, a three-deck-high Serenity adults-only retreat with its own pool and waterfall, and a variety of Fun Ship 2.0 dining, bar and entertainment areas. The success of Carnival Sunshine has inspired the transformation of Carnival Triumph and Carnival Victory into Carnival Sunrise and Carnival Radiance debuting in 2019 and 2020, respectively.